A lazy Congress. A screwed-up economy. Two wars in the Middle East. These are just several of the things Barack Obama inherited when he came to office in January of 2008. Although Obama has ended one of the wars in the Middle East, and the economy is steadily improving, many conservatives (and liberals) have complaints about Obama’s presidency. But in order to fairly judge Obama’s job performance over the past four years, one must do it while looking at the broader context, and the toxic partisan atmosphere that has engulfed Capitol Hill. Once one does, he or she will find he’s actually been a pretty good president.

Obama has accomplished a lot during his four years at the White House, and certainly more than most are willing to give him credit for. He’s helped bring the economy back from the grave, ended the War in Iraq, killed Osama bin Laden, passed a health care bill to help millions of Americans, and even stood up for the environment and gay rights, all while having to put up with an obnoxiously partisan Congress.

By the end of 2008, the American economy was in the tank. After eight years of deregulation, two wars in the Middle East, and the Bush tax cuts, the economy simply couldn’t sustain itself anymore. Unemployment shot up, peaking at 10%, while the stock market fell thousands of points. So when Obama took office on January 20, 2009, he had quite a daunting task ahead of him: undo the economic damage that Ronald Reagan started 30 years earlier with his heavy defense spending and tax cuts for the wealthy. So, as any follower of Keynesian economics would do, Obama began deficit spending, a tactic which Franklin Delano Roosevelt employed to get out of the Great Depression (side-note: it took America 12 years to get out of the Great Depression, yet most Americans regard FDR as one of the greatest presidents; it’s taken Obama four years to get the economy back on track, so many Americans think he’s a terrible president – blatant hypocrisy). Today, after such economic policies as the stimulus bills, the stock market is back to pre-recession levels, and unemployment is steadily decreasing (it’s currently at 8.5%). Although many Americans are still struggling, most are living more comfortably than they have in years. However, many are still pessimistic about our economy, mainly thanks to the (in)action of Congress. Over the past year, our government nearly shut down, almost failed to raise the debt ceiling, and could not reach a compromise on how to reduce government spending, all because Congress was too stubborn to keep the interests of the American people, and not their own political careers, first. In essence, Obama has done his job regarding the economy, but Congress has utterly failed.

Obama’s foreign policy has probably been where he has had his greatest successes. On December 15, 2011, after nearly a decade of fighting, Obama ended the War in Iraq. After it was discovered that Bush invaded Iraq on the false notion that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, the war lost most of its original support, with many Americans calling for full troop withdrawal. President Obama promised in his campaign to end the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thus far he has fulfilled one of those promises. In late January, 2012, Obama scheduled the complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2013. Perhaps Obama’s greatest foreign policy accomplishment, however, was the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader who planned the infamous 9/11 attacks. Shortly after 1 a.m. on May 2nd, 2011, a team of Navy SEALS invaded bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing bin Laden and several members of his family and terrorist cell. The news of bin Laden’s death was met with great joy in America, and the killing couldn’t have come at a better time: the tenth anniversary of 9/11 was just a few months away.

Certainly Obama’s most controversial act was his passage of a universal health care bill, which many conservatives have taken to calling “Obamacare.” Essentially, the bill makes it easier for underprivileged Americans to get proper health care coverage, which is a goal that most presidents since the 1960’s have tried to accomplish. While the bill may not be perfect, it’s a great accomplishment considering the conservative Congressional backlash it received (probably driven by health care industry lobbyists offering Congressmen financial incentives to oppose the bill). Americans have two complaints regarding the plan: it expands governmental power too much, and it costs too much for the government to do. As has been proven by history, sometimes it is necessary for the government to step in and assert its influence where an injustice or moral crime is being committed. When insurance companies can prevent anyone with pre-existing conditions, including children, from getting insurance, or when a hospital simply leaves someone, who could have been saved, to die in a hospital bed because he or she didn’t have the proper health care coverage, I’d say a moral crime is being committed. Therefore, Obama and the federal government had every right to step in and correct the gross injustices of the health care industry. And while the bill does initially costs a lot, over time it will begin to pay for itself as more and more Americans will be able to pay for their health care coverage, instead of borrowing money for expensive operations and then not paying it back. Besides, a lot of the money invested in the health care bill went towards expensive earmarks, inserted by greedy Congressmen, that had nothing to do with health care.

Obama has also made great strides in civil rights and environmental policy. On September 20, 2011, Obama repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which was a law implemented to keep homosexuality a secret in the military. Basically, if a gay person wanted to join the military, he couldn’t let anyone know he was gay, or he would receive a discharge. Clearly, the law suppressed the rights of gays to express themselves, which was a blatant civil rights violation. Also, Obama has worked to fulfill his liberal agenda of environmental reform, which after the 2010 Gulf oil spill makes a lot of sense. He has worked to secure energy independence from oil-exporting countries in the Middle East, while simultaneously trying to develop alternative energy sources, such as solar energy. Recently, Obama even blocked the passage of the Keystone Pipeline in Alaska, which would have polluted the air and water in its vicinity, damaged natural habitats, and been susceptible to earthquakes.

It’s truly remarkable how much Obama has accomplished in the past four years, when given the context. The first two years of his presidency, Obama enjoyed a Democratic Congress, but Republican Congressmen filibustered so much that it was extremely difficult to pass Obama-endorsed legislation. In 2010, Congress became Republican-controlled, which has only made it harder (impossible, really) for Obama to pass legislation. The most frustrating thing about the stubbornness of Congress is that it will block a bill simply because it is endorsed by Obama, or Democrats in general; it’s all about politics to them. But despite the incredibly contentious atmosphere surrounding Congress, and despite its failure to enact beneficial policies for America, Obama has managed to accomplish multiple major legislative victories in his tenure as president, which I believe really speaks to his abilities as a leader and negotiator.

Liberals think he compromises too much. Conservatives think he’s too liberal. So as you can see, Obama somewhat  finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place, and all for the sake of bipartisan compromise (which most would regard as a good thing). This is not fair; every leader wants to please the most people he or she can, and in order to do so a leader typically has to remain moderate and reach compromises. But as America has become more and more politically stratified over the past four years, as exemplified by the introduction of the Tea Party as a major political force, compromises have only served to piss off both sides of the political spectrum. Maybe it’s not Obama we Americans should have a problem with, but America. So before we go pointing fingers and blaming one person for all of our issues, we all just need to step back and get the facts. Once we do, I believe we will all realize that, all things considered, Obama has been a pretty good president after all.